The Toronto Globe and Mail spotlights Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, focusing on last weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo, as well as the webcomic’s influential, and profitable role, in gaming culture:

Penny Arcade earned its trusted role among those sites because it has unashamedly celebrated gaming culture since its inception in 1998. It is the work of two men, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, who are more widely known by their noms de guerre, Gabe and Tycho. Gabe does the drawing and Tycho the writing, and what began as a regular comic about playing video games has grown into a publishing and merchandising juggernaut. They sell T-shirts, best-selling books and ads on the site, which draws millions of eyes each month. To keep karma on their side, Krahulik and Holkins also run a charity called Child’s Play that raises money for hospitals — over $600,000 (U.S.) last year.

On the Penny Arcade blog, Krahulik reports that attendance for last weekend’s convention was 19,323, slightly more than the 17,000 predicted — and more than double last year’s figure. Next year, PAX will move from its Bellevue location to the much larger Washington State Convention & Trade Center in downtown Seattle.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 9:01 am and is filed under Conventions, Creators, Video Games, Webcomics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.